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Re: The Boring Thread

Originally Posted by cilu

O my God... That seems to be... ugly. I believe number grades are much more appropriate.

When you consider the fact that the numbers themselves are subjective, i.e. you cannot say with a written paper that the student definitely deserved a 79/100 or whatever, as you can with a multiple choice test, then having numbers to begin with is somewhat of a misrepresentation. I'm not saying letters are better, I just want to make it clear that jumbles in the system are not caused by their presentation, but reflect that of generic subjectivity.

Re: The Boring Thread

CAUTION: excruciatingly boring.

Originally Posted by cilu

I'm not following...

The US school systems suffer from something called "grade inflation." It starts at elementary school and goes straight up through college. Grade inflation is simply the tendancy for instructors to give students a higher grade than they deserve. Here in California, schools that turn out students with good grades get more funding the next year, so there is an incentive (political pressure) to inflate the grades of students so that the school looks good. Its similar where ever you go in the US.

At the college level it is sometimes ridiculous, especially at state funded colleges. Grades go from A,B,C,D and F which stands for Fail. Technically, if you get a D and the course is required for you to graduate (its not an elective) most likely you will have to repeat it. So this narrows things down to just three grades, A,B & C really because if you fail a required class you are taking it over. It gets better, in graduate school there pretty much is only A and B. So when Tom jokes about all scores being A, he is not far off concerning some schools. Don't get me wrong though, there are a lot of great colleges in America that have tough standards and produce smart folks. Just look at our stunningly articulate president, he went to both Yale and Harvard.

Some colleges are pass/fail. No grades. There are very few of these. Evergreen College in Washington state is/was one of them. Bunch of hippies. I saw a Phish concert there. The body odor of the crowd could melt your face.

Also, everyone so far is wrong on grades here. Grades ultimately translate into the GPA, grade point average. An A is 4.0 points, B is 3.0, C is 2.0 and D is 1.0. So if you have a 3.5gpa then you are mostly getting A's and B's. It's subjective though. In the CompSci classes, plagarism of code is horribly rampant these days (actually, since the internet and cut an paste, a lot of studies are like this.) They give points ranging from 0-100 for tests and homework but for the total class you get a number between 0 and 4. This number is multiplied by the number of units the class is worth (usually 3 units) which is based on the difficulty compared to other classes at that level. More difficult classes are 4 or 5 units and usually include more class/lab time. Short classes might be one unit. So to figure out your GPA is a total pain.

Re: The Boring Thread

Thanks Joe, that was... enlightening.

In Romania things are going this way: in primary school (grades/years 1-4) grades were recentely replaced with quantifier very good/good/mediocre/bad. I'm not sure how this works, on my days the numbers were reigning. Starting with the 5th grade and going to all the rest of school levels, grades are given in numbers, ranging from 1 to 10. For each class you must have a term average of 5. We have 12-14 classes per year (with 2 term per year). If your year average in a class is lower than 5 you must pass a final examination. If you fail it you repeat that year. If your average for three or more classes is lower than 5 you repeat the year without any final examination.

In universities, each class ends with an examination and again, you must take a grade higher than 5 to pass. If you fail it you have 2 more chances to pass it before repeating the class the next year.

The problem that arises here is that some most colleges require one or more exams for admittance, while others do it based on high school average grade and a final multi-exam (baccalaureate), required to graduate high school. Best high schools are pretty tough, with students being given lower grades. In other high schools, mediocre or less, students are given higher grades and when it comes to go to college they find themselves in an advantage than the much better students from renown schools. Thus a college that requires examination is much desirable for a good student. And usually, best colleges require pre-admittance examination.

Re: The Boring Thread

Originally Posted by Tom Frohman

Incidentally, if I die on Monday, it has been nice knowing everyone.

Well, I'm minus the 4th and 5th vertabrae in my neck with a titanium plate holding the bone graft fusing the 3rd vertebra to the 6th. However, on the up side I can walk again and have about 50% of the feeling in my hands so I can type again with more than 1 finger. I may get more back with time.

I was expecting agonizing pain but it is only mild discomfort. I'm not even having to use the narcotics the doctor gave me. On the whole I'd rate this as a stand up double on the scale with striking out being the lowest and a home run being tops.

Another week and I'll be able to drive again. Another 2 and 1/2 weeks and I'll be back to work. Who can argue with a month long paid vacation?

Verere testudinem! (Fear the turtle)

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. -Albert Einstein

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